Icelandic horses have good genes -

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A Small brown horse high -steps through snow. Diauses of coat powder such as sieve sugar. I run in the saddles in thick snowwear, and I collect matters and we are heading to a blind white wilderness about 30 minutes outside the capital of Iceland Reykravic. Despite the decrease in temperature in the twenties of the last century, the sweat is broken from the trip.

The name of the horse is Fjalar and has been born and raised to survive in the classes in Iceland. The land of fire and ice formed this inheritance for 1100 years. He stands slightly less than 14 hands on his shoulders, or 55 inches. He is thick enough to hide my fingers when I press my hand on his side. It can easily stomach herbs and poor hay in nutrients.

Fjalar can also do something that most other horses in the world cannot. In addition to traditional walking, jogging, Canter and Palap, Fjalar TöLT can perform a flying pace, or SKEIð – Two walk Unique to Icelandic horses.

In the body of the body — **Walking guard:** Fjalar and author on a trip. *With the permission of the CD Davidson-Heers.*

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Equestrian talks about walking in terms of rhythmic. Tölt is a four -clicks in which the horse is always on the ground in a specific sequence. It has two rhythms, as the horse stir the front and back leg on one side at one time. During one stage, every four feet outside the ground. The speed of horses can reach 30 miles per hour. It can make both hungry looks as if the horse was skiing on the ice, carrying a rider smoothly across an easy, and some Iceland races while carrying the full beer Stein.

Recent defense thesisThe researcher Heiðrún Sigur∂ardótir managed to first identify two Icelandic horses that affect these walks, as well as those that were previously identified, which can help form future reproductive decisions. Her genetic analyzes also showed that centuries of relatives’ marriage on the island did not harm the genetic diversity in the dynasty and therefore are still sustainable.

The two new genetics set Sigur∂ardótir to play a role in the Icelandic horse’s special tissue fabrics: Stau2 The gene, which also turned out to influence the quality of the horse and run, and Reln The gene, which affects the quality of Tölt, Trot, Canter and Gallop, may affect the ability and support of small horses. In addition, Sigur∂ardótir showed that these two genes are with a previously specified DMRT3 “Walking Guard” boom It has added and compensatory effects on the ability of the Icelandic horse to speed. Previous research has shown that when Icelandic horses have no specific DMRT3 A boom, that these horses are unable to “speed”, and found that this was so even when horses had other genetic signs associated with strong speed capabilities.

Some Icelandists are racing while carrying the full beer Stein.

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“These are very complex features that we look at, which makes them interesting, but difficult,” she says. “It is like searching for a needle in a straw pile.”

To define genes, Sigur∂ardótir withdrew proportions from Bookbook in Iceland, developed in 1923, Which describes genealogy, walks, and other properties of individual Icelandic horses, and a global international database that began to track more than 560,000 individual, dead, dead and vitality, in 2000, then withdrew a sample of hair and blood from the genome and applying genome analyzes on a large scale and speed of frequency. Horses.

The first people in Iceland need horses that can work for miles without getting tired. More than 1000 years ago, the newly discovered land was rugged and merciful, a world of volcanoes, rapid rivers, and winter storms with wind storms that could fly a developing adult. The only reliable shapes of transportation on the ground were the horses that NORSE brought and other settlers – including Mongolian and Norwegian incidents, whether stored or Hardy.

After noticing some horses that move in ways that made travel more smooth, they took the dowry and began to multiply what became the pace and tölt. Although other strains in the world – such as PASO Fino and Tennesse Walking Horse – they cannot perform TöLT and some claim that their wallets that are listed are less graceful or fast than the Iceland horse.

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Since those early days, Icelandic horses have not merged new strains in their lineage. Foreign horses are not allowed to enter Iceland, and as soon as the Icelandic horse leaves the nation, it is not allowed to return. Icelandic horses It has not been vaccinated Because of their isolation.

Fjalar seems to know that he belongs to a special breed. Pass a horse, then another to take the initiative. Snow fly from its hooves moving across the snow street. But he remains with his herd. It is easier to maintain the warmth in a group, to penetrate the snow, to keep his lawyers in this amazing monochrome landscape as his predecessors were wandering once.